The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York recently denied a captive insurer’s motion to compel arbitration. The captive insurer, First Mutual Transportation Assurance Company, Inc. (FMTAC), argued that its reinsurer, Infrassure Ltd. (Infrassure), should be compelled to arbitrate a Hurricane Sandy-related reinsurance dispute in London. The parties shared a Certificate of Facultative Reinsurance that contained an arbitration clause setting forth arbitration procedures applicable to disputes between them. The district court held that the clause is inapplicable to this suit “because, by its explicit language, it only governs disputes between FMTAC and ‘UK and Bermuda Insurers.’” Infrassure is a Swiss insurer and therefore is not bound by the arbitration clause.
Infrassure, Ltd. V. First Mutual Transportation Assurance Company, Inc., No. 15-cv-8230 (U.S.D.C. S.D.N.Y. Jan. 22, 2016)
This post written by Whitney Fore, a law clerk at Carlton Fields in Washington, DC.
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